It is known to produce various bacon products from smoked pork bellies. In these processes, the raw pork bellies are typically pumped with a brine solution to cure and flavor the meat, hung in a smoke house and smoked. The smoking process heats the raw bellies to remove moisture and return the bellies to their original weight before being pumped. The lowered water activity level of the pork bellies reduces the likelihood that potentially dangerous bacteria can develop in harmful quantities in the fluid. After smoking, the pork bellies are considered bacon slabs. The bacon slabs are typically then pressed into squared shapes and either sliced and packaged or sliced, cooked and packaged.
During slicing, scraps and ends of the bacon slabs are collected for further processing. These remnant parts are often referred to as “ends” and “pieces.” The ends and pieces are diced or ground to reduce their size and cooked using one of the aforementioned cooking processes. Upon cooking, the diced ends and pieces form particulate bacon products, known as bacon topping or bacon bits. These bacon bits are packaged and sold for use as a garnish or ingredient for various foods.
Conventional methods for manufacturing bacon bits have a number of shortcomings. First, conventional processes that rely on ends and pieces are unable to satisfy the present market demand for bacon bits. In addition, current processes are unable to use raw pork bellies that are unsuitable or inconvenient for smoking, such as bellies that are too small or irregularly shaped to be pumped and/or smoked. Another difficulty with producing bacon bits from raw pork bellies is that the proteins contained in the pork bellies tend to mix with salts added during the curing process to form a sticky mixture. As such, the ground pork tends to clump together, inhibiting further processing into suitable sized bacon bits.
Various methods have been proposed to cook raw pork bellies directly into bacon bits without first smoking or otherwise pre-conditioning the pork bellies, and without experiencing undesirable clumping caused by salt mixing with the proteins. One proposed method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,133 to Kunert (“Kunert '133”), which is incorporated herein by reference. Kunert '133 discloses grinding raw bellies (whether whole or just the ends and pieces), and mixing the ground meat with curing agents, water and encapsulated salts. Encapsulated salts are salts contained within fat that prevents any reaction with the meat proteins until the fat is heated to a high enough temperature to melt the fat barrier. The pork/salt mixture is then heated while being continuously agitated to raise the temperature of the meat proteins to a first temperature that causes the proteins to become denatured. Once denatured, the proteins no longer form a sticky substance when mixed with the salt. The mixture is then heated to a second temperature, still while being agitated in a mixer, to a second temperature that melts the fat barrier on the encapsulated salts and allows the salt to mix with the ground pork. Kunert '133 also discloses a two-step procedure in which non-encapsulated salts are added after the ground pork is heated to the first temperature, and the process continues as before. In various embodiments, Kunert '133 also may dice the pork after cooking to reduce the size of the cooked bacon bits. Kunert '133 uses a steam jacketed vacuum kettle or blender to cook the meat, and relies on constant agitation during cooking to break up particles of pork that attach to one another.
Another proposed method for cooking raw pork bellies into bacon bits is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,355 to Kunert et al. (“Kunert '355”), which is incorporated herein by reference. Kunert '355 discloses a process similar to that disclosed in Kunert '133, with the additional requirement that the product is heated under a vacuum, still while being agitated, in order to cook the bacon in the absence of oxygen, which may help the product achieve a desirable color. Both Kunert '133 and Kunert '355 require continuous agitation of the product during the manufacturing process, which complicates the processing and cooking process.
Other methods for cooking raw pork bellies comprise grinding then cooking the pork. Still other methods comprise cooking then chilling bacon pieces, then passing the bacon slabs through a dicer. One such process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,768 to Olander, which is incorporated herein by reference. These processes also suffer from various shortcomings.
In light of the shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides an alternative method to produce cooked meat products, such as bacon bits, from raw meat, such as whole raw pork bellies and raw pork belly ends and pieces.